Medal of Honor recipient's remains identified after 80 years
Eight decades after he died, the Department of Defense confirmed it had positively identified the remains of Capt. Willibald Bianchi, a Medal of Honor recipient who went “beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy” while fighting in the Philippines during World War II.
Bianchi was captured during the fall of the Philippines to Japanese forces and survived the Bataan Death March. He would eventually die near the end of the war on Jan. 9, 1945, when U.S. planes hit the Japanese transport ship the Enoura Maru that he was on near Taiwan.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Pentagon agency tasked with working to identify those lost in combat, successfully identified Bianchi on Aug. 11, but waited to publicly announce the news on Friday, which was National POW/MIA Recognition. According to the DPAA, more information on how he was identified will be released once Bianchi’s family is fully briefed.
Speaking on Friday at Arlington National Cemetery, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that 431 unknown remains are associated with the sinking of the Enoura Maru. Hegseth said that Bianchi’s remains will be transported to Minnesota for a proper burial.
https://taskandpurpose.com/history/willibald-bianchi-medal-of-honor-identified/
= new reply since forum marked as read
